I've searched through that review using 'region', 'free', and '0' keywords. No where do I see it stated that any of the discs are region free. Please point me in the right direction, if I've missed it.

FYI: 'RCE: No' does not mean region free in case that is what you're basing that comment on. Below is a definition of RCE or Regional Coding Enhancement from DVD Talk:

Q: What's the difference between Region Coding and RCE?
A: Regional Coding enhancement(RCE) is an additional layer of protection which some studios have placed on select REGION 1 DVDs to prevent them from playing on region-free or multi-region players...

So, until someone verifies the disc by testing it in a player of some sort, I think we're going to continue going in circles.

And Blu-ray does not have Regions with numbers's only letters. I've gone through all my UK discs and none of them say anything about Region on the disc (and only one the case which is might Optimum NOTLD). I hope you are right, but I'm just telling you what Region 0 has meant for DVD for the past 13 years while Blu-ray has had letters for the past 3.

Someone out there must have this disc and has the ability to check region coding.

I know the diff between regions on dvd and on BRD, do you really think Arrow willl print region 0 on a disc if they did not mean it to be "no Region"

Uh guys, I've got the UK disc and I'm seeing the same noise reduction artefacts in the same places as on the AB disc. It's not the same encode, because certain bits of print damage have been treated differently between the two, and the Arrow version is superficially grainier, but the NR artefacts remain. The grain itself often appears quite clumpy and unnatural. My money's on the NR being baked in to the master.

Uh guys, I've got the UK disc and I'm seeing the same noise reduction artefacts in the same places as on the AB disc. It's not the same encode, because certain bits of print damage have been treated differently between the two, and the Arrow version is superficially grainier, but the NR artefacts remain. The grain itself often appears quite clumpy and unnatural. My money's on the NR being baked in to the master.

Yeah, DVDActive finally placed new BD captures in their review and they don't look as good as the ones they requested from Arrow.

Having viewed both, I think I actually prefer the Anchor Bay/Starz disc. The baked-in noise reduction doesn't seem so aggressive on the AB because, unlike the Arrow version, it hasn't got a layer of clumpy grain that is disturbed by movement (think of the DNR on the original crew Trek movies).

If anything, the noise reduction artefacts stand out even more on the Arrow version; there's a shot of Scotty Reiniger yelling "Peter!" just after he shoots the zombie in the red check shirt at the airfield, and as he moves off screen right you can see his outline trailing after him. Ugh.

I'm not saying this stuff isn't there on the AB version, because it is, but the softer look takes the edge off and it's less distracting to me. It's got the proper mono audio too.

I was going to get the Network NotLD release even with the lesser video quality because I wanted a version without the cropping. I'm glad I read the full review because he states that the Network disc is actually missing lines of dialogue, i.e. the full movie is not there and is ~ 1/2 a minute shorter than the Optimum release. Jeez, can no one release this movie right?

That's what I've been hearing. Things were very positive initially, so I placed my order and by the time I received it (yesterday), the word is that it's on the same level as the US AB release. Which sucks as Amazon has it for $13 now.

I'm going to watch it before Halloween (waiting for my copy of the 40th Anniversary Edition of NotLD to arrive), so I'll post my impressions soon.

Wow. Thanks for posting this. The Network looks like CRAP! The Optimum looks pretty nice, but the cropping looks bad on that cap of the TV. There was a review of it on DVD Beaver a while back. Is this one actually an upconvert, or is it an HD transfer? This is one of my favorites, but if it's an upscale I'll wait for an even better version.

Is the the Stereo LPCM track on the Dawn of the Dead Blu-ray an actual stereo mix, or is it a downmix of the 5.1 audio? Or maybe just the original mono audio encoded as 2.0? I'm hoping for the latter, since the mono on the Anchor Bay release is just 192kbps DD.

The Optimum transfer is a true HD transfer with lots of fine details and much better contrast etc. compared to the older versions.
The cropping in some scenes is not bad enough to spoil the otherwise amazing disc. I have watched the old Elite LD and DVD many times and I didn´t notice the cropping until I saw screen compares, so it´s not as severe as some makes it out to be. The Elite version sure looks like crap after seeing the BD

Agreed. BTW, AMC is also touting a "remastered/restored" showing of NIGHT. But with their commercials and banner ads covering the lower corners of the screen (talk about a mood breaker!), I'd rather pay a couple bucks for the OnDemand showing.

I've seen Night more times than I can count so it was surprising to catch the Tom and Judy bbq scene on amc this past monday. To my ears the creepy synth sound that plays during that scene sounded much more full and crisp than I've ever heard it before . Did anyone else notice this ?